Photo: Chris Bryan, the first Irish swimmer to qualify for an international open water event

Local swimmer Chris Bryan finished a very credible 9th out of 5,000 competitors who took part in the Great London Swim on July 3rd on the River Thames at Victora Harbour. This is one of the 5 Great Swims events sponsored by British Gas that take place across Britain.

20-year-old Chris competed in the ‘elite’ section among world class swimmers, alongside world champions, European champions and Olympic silver and bronze medallists in the mile-long event.

He finished 9th overall and was in the mix all the way, holding third place for a while before his group took the less favourable 'line' back to the finish.

Chris finished ahead of British Olympic silver medallist David Davies and Australia’s Brendan Cappell, the current world 25km open water champion.

This is a very promising swim and result for the young swimmer who is studying sports science at the University of Limerick. The race was on by Thomas Lurz of Germany, a bronze medallist in the Beijing Olympics.

Chris has also qualified for the European Senior Swimming Championships' in the 5km and 10km openwater events. He is looking forward to representing Ireland this year in Budapest with the open water events starting on the 4th August and is the first Irish athlete to qualify internationally for a big open water event.

Open water swimming became an Olympic event in 2008, it’s an ambition of Chris to represent his country when the Games are held in London.

Chris won the national 10km championship in May. In january he set an Irish record for a 5km in the pool (55m. 59s) coming in 23 mins ahead of the second placed swimmer.

On Wednesday he leaves for Turkey where he will compete in a 5km European Cup race in preparation for European championships on Saturday 17th July.